


The Tie that Binds, and Binds, and Binds

by merryghoul



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Accidentally Killed The Wrong Person, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Gen, Poisoning, Revenge, Revenge Backfire, Season/Series 06, Stabbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-11 20:01:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7905742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arya did what she was supposed to do: kill Lady Crane.  But it wasn't the right thing to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tie that Binds, and Binds, and Binds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tish/gifts).



> Title taken from [a quote by Helen Rowland.](http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/helenrowla379364.html?src=t_jealousy)

The poison was in Lady Crane's bottle of wine. Arya knew the signs of this particular poison she put in Lady Crane's wine. The poison targeted the stomach first, some time within an hour. Hours later the victim would die. Arya thought it would be several hours since she didn't overpower Lady Crane's wine with poison. 

Waiting for Lady Crane to drink the wine was torturous for Arya. It felt like Lady Crane was intentionally putting off her post-performance glass of wine. There was something on or near Lady Crane's person to adjust. Someone in the company would bump into Lady Crane by accident. At one point, Arya though Lady Crane wasn't going to have her post-performance glass of wine after all. 

Eventually Lady Crane did get to her wine. Lady Crane didn't notice the wine was poisoned at all. Learning to apply poisons to various foods and liquids while blind did serve Arya well after all. Still Arya had to wait until the poison took effect.

Minutes later, Lady Crane grabbed her stomach. Arya ran up to her. “Are you okay?”

“No,” Lady Crane said to Arya. “I'm not sure what happened. My stomach is in pain.”

“It must have been something you ate earlier.”

Lady Crane nodded. “It must have been.” 

“I think you should go home.” 

“You're right.” Lady Crane paused. “I never learned your name.”

“It's Mercy, Lady Crane,” Arya said.

“Mercy.” Lady Crane stood up as much as she could. “I will show you the way to my home, Mercy.”

 

Unbeknownst to Arya, the Waif was also hiding in the shadows backstage, spying on Arya. Jaqen requested the Waif follow Arya, to monitor Arya's progress. She had a scowl on her face. Arya had listened to Jaqen. Lady Stark was actually killing Lady Crane. Arya might become the first highborn lady to become a Faceless Man after all, despite everything the Waif could do to stop her. 

The Waif removed the scowl off of her face. She didn't want Jaqen to see how displeased she was that Arya had actually listened to him.

 

The Waif's mood improved when she told Jaqen about Arya killing Lady Crane. “A girl has failed,” Jaqen said. “A girl will not be No One.” 

“Does the Many-Faced God require her sacrifice?”

Jaqen nodded. He looked directly into the Waif's eyes. “Do not make her suffer.”

 

It was after Arya hung Lady Crane's face in the Hall of Faces that Arya ran into Jaqen. “A girl has failed,” Jaqen said to Arya.

“A girl did what you told me to do. A girl killed Lady Crane.”

“A girl stole another life from the Many-Faced God.”

The Waif walked into the main room, unnoticed by Jaqen. She had a huge grin on her face. Arya knew she had done something to anger the Faceless Men. After seeing the Waif's grin, the only thing Arya could think of doing was to run. 

“A girl can run from the Many-Faced God,” Jaqen said as Arya was leaving the House of Black and White, “but she cannot hide from him.” 

 

Arya decided to leave Braavos. She had no business with the city now that she had been cast out of the House of Black and White. Arya had enough money to leave, thanks to her panhandling in the streets of Braavos when she was blind. 

There was one thing she needed, one thing she left behind in her haste to get away from the Waif. Needle. Needle was still hidden in the rocks near the House of Black and White. There was a chance a Faceless Man might look for Arya away from her hiding place in Braavos. But Arya wasn't leaving Braavos without Needle. Needle was who she was. Needle was her past. It was her connection to the Winterfell she once knew, and although she didn't get along with everyone in her family, it was her connection to her family. Arya couldn't leave Braavos without Needle.

 

Arya returned to the rocks near the House of Black and White in the dead of night. The training she received while she was blind enabled her to quickly uncover and retrieve Needle. 

Arya didn't notice the Waif hiding near the House of Black and White, watching her every move. When the Waif saw Arya with Needle, she knew exactly how she was going to kill Arya. 

 

With her panhandling money and Needle by her side, Arya was on her way to the docks of Braavos. Arya passed by a woman who was selling cockle-shells on one of Braavo's bridges. The woman was dressed similarly to when Arya was in the guise of Lanna. The woman stopped her cart on the bridge. “I think I dropped something,” the woman said. 

Something told Arya that, despite her better judgment, she should help the woman. Arya turned and walked to the cart and the woman. “Do you need help?”

The woman peeled off her face. It was the Waif. The Waif used her knife to slash Arya's face just above her left eye. The blood from the wound rapidly fell into Arya's eye, causing her eye to sting. The Waif then punched Arya in her temple, causing Arya to be knocked out instantly. Arya fell to the ground. 

The Waif dropped Arya's panhandling money on to the bridge, knowing Arya wouldn't need the money anymore. The Waif put away her knife, still coated in blood. She grabbed Needle from Arya's side and stabbed Arya in the stomach with Needle. Needle passed through Arya's body. Small pools of blood came out of where the stab wounds were made. As soon as Needle passed through Arya's body, the Waif threw Needle, now bent from being in Arya's body as well as from hitting the surface of the bridge, over the bridge. 

The Waif pulled out her knife again. She slammed Arya's head to the ground and slit Arya's throat, cutting through the veins and arteries in her neck. Arya's face displayed shock as she died, the blood pouring out of her neck. 

The Waif then quickly cut off Arya's face. The tip of the Waif's knife split the skin under Arya's chin in half. She traced the tip of the knife around Arya's face, from the edges of her jaw to the top of her hairline. With Arya's face freed from the rest of her body, the Waif dug her knife under Arya's skin and peeled her face off. The Waif hid Arya's face in a bag she carried around her waist, dark enough so Arya's blood wouldn't be seen as it bled through the bag.

Satisfied that Arya was dead, the Waif threw Arya's body over the bridge. Using her dress, the Waif mopped up most of Arya's blood from the bridge. She cleaned her knife on her dress and replaced it in a sheath. The Waif picked up her cart and started wheeling it over the bridge again.

A man stopped the Waif after she wheeled the cart over the bridge. “Are you selling cockles?”

“I am,” the Waif said.

“What happened to you? You have blood on your dress.”

“My red flower is blooming. I have had an accident. I was on my way to change when you stopped me. But I can still sell you a cockle, sir.” 

 

The Waif changed out of the dress she killed Arya in back into the dress she usually wore inside the Hall of Faces. After she changed clothes and went back inside the main room of the Hall of Faces, she felt something pass in her neck, followed by that something twisting in her neck. The Waif fell backwards after the something was removed from her neck. She knew she was dying. 

Jaqen stood over the Waif as she was dying, a disapproving look on his face. “The Many-Faced God did not want a girl to suffer.”

“Lady Stark...”

The Waif died before finishing her statement. Jaqen picked up the Waif's body, heading to another part of the House of Black and White to remove her face. “A girl was almost No One,” Jaqen said as he left the Hall of Faces.


End file.
